Electric furnace.



S. PEAGOGK. ELECTRIC FURNACE. APPLIOATION FILED SEPT. 20, 1913.

. 1 129 512 Patented Feb.23, 1915.

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ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOE TO INTERNATIONAL AGRICUL- TURAL CORPORATION, OF YORK. N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

ELECTRIC runu'acn.

Application filed September '20, 1918. herial No. 790,921.

To all whom. it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL PEACOCK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Electric Furnaces; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to electric furnaces of the resistance type, and has for its object to produce a furnace of this character which will be more efiicient in action in fixing atmospheric nitrogen than have been those heretofore proposed.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the novel details of construction and combinations of parts more fully hereinafter disclosed and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referrin to the accom )anvin drawings u b v 7 forming a part of this specification, in which like numerals designate like parts in all the views :Figure 1 is a sectional view of a furnace built in accordance with my inven tion; and, Fig. :2 is a sectional view, taken on the line 22 of Fig. 1.

1 indicates the electrodes, which are preferably two in number and of a built-up con struction, as shown.

2 indicates the body of the furnace, which may be of brick work or other insulating material; 3, a steel acket for said body por tion; 4:, a metal section forming a continuation of the furnace shaft or bore; 5, valved conduits for leading off the exit gases; 6, a continuation of the section t provided with the hand feed opening 'Z, a section bolted to the member 6; 8, a rotating gate or valve forming a gas tight connection with the furnace and adapted to feed measured quantities of charge material 9 to the furnace chamber 10 which is preferably tapered toward the bottom, as shown; 11 indicates oppositely disposed. valved inlets for nitro gen, or producer gas, located below the electrodes l, and preferably passing through the reduced portion 13 of the furnace body, as shown. Said reduced portion 13 is also provided with a steel casing 14, and its lower end opens the conduit or delivery passage id-"preferably provided with the screw conveyer it and outlet or delivery 17,

adapted to pass the material into any suitable receiver, not shown.

' 18 1s a gear means for rotating the conveyer 16, and 19 is a gear for rotating the rotating valve or feed member 8.

The furnace chamber 10 is preferably square, or almost square in cross section, and the area of each of the opposed exposed faces of the electrodes is preferably made at least as great as the area of said section, so that the path of least resistance through the molten material willbe practically directly from one electrode face to the other; and therefore, the objectionable short circuiting and deflections of the current through said material, with the consequent unequal heatings thereof, now so annoying 1n furnaces of this type, are largely, ifnot entirely done away with. lhis, I consider an important feature of my invention, and is conveniently secured by building up the electrodes 1 from slabs of graphite, as shown. The furnace is gas tight, when operating, as will be clear from the drawings, and by oppositely disposing the gas inlets 11 as illustrated, and thus causing the streams to meet in the middle of the charge, an even and steady flow of nitrogen through the reaction zone is had, which would not be the case if only one inlet was employed.

The operation of my furnace will be clear from the foregoing, but may be briefly summarized as follows:The chamber 10 may be filled with coke up to the electrodes, and then hot coke thrown in through the open ing 50, the current turned on and the conveyer started while charge material is fed down through the chamber, or the said chamber may be filled with coke to a point above the electrodes, the current turned on and when the coke becomes incandescent, it may be fed out through the conveyer while charge material is caused to follow down into the reaction zone. In either case, the turning of the feedva-lve or member 8 will cause charge material 9 to be uniformly fed to the reaction zone, and the turning of the screw conveyer 16 willcause the product to be uniformly removed from said zone.

The current, in furnaces of this type, as is well known, has heretofore been exceedingly diilicult to control, it being stronger through some parts of the charge than through others, and it has resulted from this that the heating of the charge has not been Patented Feb, 23, 1915.

uniform and the product as a consequence has been irregular in quality. In my 1n vention, however, not only does the large area of the electrode faces above mentioned serve to remedy this grave defect, but also preferably briquet my charge material 9, so that the original uniform distribution of conducting material is maintained in the reaction zone, and the current accordingly remains more steady than heretofore. Not only do I thus steady the current through the reaction zone, and therefore produce a more uniform product, but I also regulate the amount of current that flows through the reaction zone, and therefore the amount of heat generated therein or the temperature of said zone by regulating the amount of carbon in the charge. It follows from this that I may so regulate the amount of carbon in the charge as to produce a temperature of only say 1500 C. in the reaction zone, which would be suitable for producing calcium carbonitrid Ca N .C N or I may put in less carbon and thus raise the tem perature to 1900 0. suitable for making a nitrid such as Ca N from the same charge material consisting of calcium oxid, carbon and nitrogen.

What I claim is 1. In an electric furnace of the resistance type having a chamber substantially rectangular in cross section oppositely disposed electrodes each having an exposed face in said chamber of an area substantiall as great as said cross section; means for eeding charge material to said chamber; means for withdrawing the finished product from said chamber; means for feeding a gas to said chamber; means for withdrawing the gaseous products of the reaction from said chamber; and means for maintainin said chamber substantially gas tight, su stantially as described.

2. In an electric furnace of the resistance type having a chamber substantially rectangular in cross section oppositely disposed electrodes each having an exposed face in said chamber of an area substantially as great as said cross section; rotating means for feeding charge material to said chamber; rotatin means for withdrawing the finished pro not from said chamber; valved means for feeding a gas to said chamber; valved means for withdrawing the gaseous products of the reaction from said chamber; and means comprising a metal casing for maintaining said chamber substantially gas tight, substantially as described.

3. In an electric furnace of the resistance type having a chamber substantially rectangular in cross section; means affording a passage for feeding charge material by hand to said chamber; oppositely disposed electrodes each having an exposed face in said chamber of an area substantially as great as said cross section; automatic means for feeding charge material to said chamber; automatic means for withdrawing the finished product from said chamber; means for feeding a gas to said chamber; means for withdrawing the gaseous products of the reaction from said chamber; and means for maintaining said chamber substantially gas tight, substantially as described.

4. In an electric furnace having a chamber substantially rectangular in cross section; oppositely disposed electrodes having a cross section of substantially the same di mensions as said chamber; an automatic rotating means for feeding charge material to said chamber; means opening into said chamber for feeding said material by hand into said chamber; a screw conveyer for removing the finished products from said chamber; oppositely disposed valved pipe for feeding a nitrogen bearing gas to said chamber; a valved pipe for leading off the gaseous products of the reaction from said chamber; and a means including a metal casing for making said chamber gas tight, substantially as described.

In testimon whereof I afiix my signature, in presence 0 two witnesses.

SAMUEL PEACOOK.

Witnesses:

T. A. WITHERSPOON, EDITH L. BROWN. 

